August 20, 2007

Like Waking Up In A Brand New Bed...



...or "Just another Manic Monday!" Yesterday, while watching the Dodgers-Rockies game, surrounded by Dodgers' fans, I was reminded of a time, a mere 30+ days ago, when things seemed quite different in the baseball landscape...let's take you back to that time...


...the Mets were raft with injuries, trying to hold on to first place by the slimmest of margins over the Phillies & Braves...

...the Yankees were coming on strong, only 8 games back of Boston after being sub-.500 or thereabouts for much of the season...

...the experts were all saying how vulnerable the Mets' were, especially their starting pitching...

...no one believed that Pedro would come back this season, let alone ever...

...Carlos Gomez and Endy Chavez were on the DL, Carlos Beltran was playing like he should be (and shortly thereafter, was), Paul Lo Duca was struggling with injuries, and Carlos Delgado couldn't get a good hitting streak together and seemed to have either lost a bit in his swing or was hurting worse than he was letting on...

...Julio Franco was re-signed by the Braves...

...the Cubs were wallowing under Lou Pinella's watch, while the Cardinals seemed lost for the season a mere half-year after winning the World Series...

...Rickey Henderson was contemplating a comeback, only to become a coach with the Mets, a move which nearly everyone ridiculed...

...Mike Hargrove had left the Mariners in mid-season, while the team was turing things around, but no one really gave them a chance...

...Everyone hoped the Mets would acquire a starter before the trading deadline...


...Carlos Zambrano loomed as the biggest catch in the upcoming free agent market, assured of breaking Barry Zito's contract numbers...and thoughts of acquiring Johan Santana were practically gone, as who in their right mind would risk trading the best pitcher of the past 5 years, and probably the next 5 years, while in the middle of his prime and while surrounded by players such as Mourneau, Hunter, Castillo, Mauer and Nathan?...




And now, in reverse order, here's where we are today, August 20th, an off-day for our beloved boys in blue and orange...

...Zambrano signed a 5-year extension with the Cubs, so now it's a full-court press on the Twins this off-season to acquire Johan Santana a year before he becomes a free agent... and the Twins angered Santana enough with their trade of Castillo to possibly put the Twins' GM, Terry Ryan, into a position where he has to trade Johan during the off-season...

...while the Mets didn't acquire a "starting pitcher", they DID acquire a starter - Luis Castillo - their new starting second-sacker, who has been excellent since the trade...

...the Mariners are in second place in the AL West, a breath away from catching the Angels, and leading the Wild Card race...

...Rickey Henderson has been great in his role, working with Castillo, Milledge and Reyes, among others, and he's always a call-up away if our outfield continued to have so many injuries...(let's hope not!!)...

...The Cubs are in first, with the Brewers breathing down their necks, and the Chris Carpenter/Mark Mulder- less Cards are a mere handful of games behind them...

...Julio Franco was dropped by the Braves, moving to their Single A team on his way to a career as a coach...but they got some guy named "Mark" something-or-other to replace him - drats!

...Gomez won't be back until late September, if at all, Endy is a few weeks away, Beltran came off the DL and has been on fire, Delgado has sat out the past 4 games (and we can only hope the rest will have finally done him some good!) and PLD is joined by Mr. Castro on the DL, leaving our catching duties in the hands of Mike Defelice and Sandy Alomar Jr. ...UGH!!!! (Picture Charlie Brown flying forward after Lucy pulled the football away - again!)




...Pedro is making his third start today, not televised, and they hope he can throw 80 pitches from the mound, as he gets closer to making a comeback this season. A Pedro at 2/3 of old is still better than most other pitchers out there (come on- Pedro or Jaime Moyer???!!!)

.
..Last I looked, O-Hern was the ONLY regular starter on the team who did NOT have at least 10 wins (Tom, Oliver and John) and only because he was hurt- he's been their best pitcher when he can take the mound, and the way he's going, it is a matter of when, not "if"...so much for what a "pitiful" bunch we had, huh?


...The Yankees are making another startling comeback, but I really believe that, this time, their lack of pitching depth in the rotation will make them either the first team eliminated, if they indeed make the play-offs at all, which is still not a sure thing...

...finally, the Mets are not only STILL in first place, but their 5 game lead over the Phillies (5.5 over Braves) is the LARGEST lead over a second place team in all of MLB...

Maybe, just maybe, when all is said and done, some columnist will recognize how amazing it's been for this team to remain in first place when half of their roster has been injured all season and the subs have stepped up in spurts that have been surprising yet reassuring...perhaps when we are raising the flag next April???

Back to Sunday, the last time I was in Dodgers' Stadium, the Mets' were about to come to town, all of my Dodger-fan friends were predicting that we'd be swept and the Dodgers were in first place...and now, it's like waking up in a brand new bed, in the same bedroom, because the Dodgers are fighting for third place, behind the D-Backs and Padres, and we maintain our lead in the NL East...sometimes, it's just like like Pete Townsend said - - -

Meet The New Boss...Same as the Old Boss!!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ahhh how the times change

Anonymous said...

and there will be more

Anonymous said...

thanks for pointing out the obvious

Anonymous said...

any time